telling the age of a bird

[ryelle]

This isnt any sort of major problem or anything, its more out of curiosity. Right, we bought our IRN Spit in July 2007. At the time of purchasing him, the guy in the pet shop said that he was "about a year old". I've just looked at some photographs of Spit from the time we got him, and i didnt realise at the time how young he looked. I call him a he, because of the way he acts, but at the time of buying him the guy said "its male, because of the ring around its neck"... but obviously he didnt have a ring at that point... he still doesnt, so we wernt sure.

Heres a photo of Spit a week after we got him (i cant believe how scruffy he looks! haha):


it was a few months after we got him that he molted his tail feathers to grow the two long blue ones aswell.

this is him about 8 months later.



looking at the photos, would anybody be able to tell me wether the pet shop owner was right? according to the pet shop owner Spit should now be two years old. i dont know anything about aging birds but i seriously doubt the guy in the shop knew what he was talking about.

-i hope i posted this in the right place, i didnt know where else to put it.

thanks everyone

[Donna]

The first pic looks like spit is younger then a year.

If he is 2 years old now you should be seeing some sort of ring coming through, I don't see it in the second pic. I would need to see the front pofile under he's beak to tell you if you have a male or female. Also if you lift up the back feathers where the ring should be, it should be starting to turn an orange color. Do you see that?
He does look like a male from the pics you have up and he could be younger then what you were told.


Donna

[Amazonite]

i was thinking he is coming up to a year now, just looking at his pictures agaisnt Amazon's baby pictures, but them again im not an expert

[Lauren]

Yoda went through a moult at 1 year old, the first pic looks as though hes moulting, you say the second pic was taken 8 months later, so I'm thinking around 18 months around abouts.

[ryelle]

We cant touch him, because hes terrified of hands, but hell come to the front of the cage near my face if i put my hands behind my back, and it does look like the feathers where his ring should be are turning orange the feathers on the lower side of the orange are a very light green colour. i think its almost time for another moult too. ill try get a front photo some time this week. itll be good to finally know wether we are dealing with a moody boy or girl lol.

thanks for your replies